


Left Behind But Far Ahead

by sinofwriting



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Gen, Maya Hart-centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28688079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinofwriting/pseuds/sinofwriting
Summary: Maya doesn’t tell Riley everything.Maya doesn’t tell Riley everything because she doesn’t trust her to not try and fix her even more despite the fact that she doesn’t need fixing. Because she doesn’t want Riley to look at her with more pity in her eyes. Or to look at her with confusion, not understanding why she seems to have grown up so fast.---Or Maya and Riley grow apart and no one seems to realize why Maya has "changed".
Relationships: Maya Hart & Josh Matthews, Maya Hart & Original Character(s), Maya Hart/Josh Matthews
Comments: 45
Kudos: 52





	Left Behind But Far Ahead

Maya doesn’t tell Riley everything. 

Maya doesn’t tell Riley everything because she doesn’t trust her to not try and fix her even more despite the fact that she doesn’t need fixing. Because she doesn’t want Riley to look at her with more pity in her eyes. Or to look at her with confusion, not understanding why she seems to have grown up so fast.

So, she doesn’t correct Riley when she assumes she’s never had her first kiss, which she had at eleven with Cody Barnes who lived next door. Her first date at thirteen with Danny Skies. She lets Riley assume that she's inexperienced but not willing to let that get in the way. 

When she turns fifteen, she can clearly see the cracks in the foundation of their friendship. 

Maya gets a job. No one seems to realize that her mom’s paychecks go to rent, bills, groceries, and the little that’s left over she spends on herself. She works at a little pizza place that pays her above minimum wage because she redesigned their logo and menu and is willing to work whatever hours as long as they don’t interfere with school. Maya gets a job, because she wants to go to college and no one is saving money for her to go, so she does it for herself. 

Maya gets a job and Riley wants her to quit because it means they won’t see each other anymore. Riley doesn’t seem to realize that in the last six months they’ve only seen each other at school. Maya tells her it’s so she can have some extra spending money for art supplies and clothes, even though she saves everything but sixty dollars from every check she gets. And that goes to her metrocard and phone bill.

She starts actively paying attention in classes and starts getting A’s and B’s instead of barely passing grades. Because she needs a scholarship even if it’s barely anything. She stops getting into trouble, she can’t afford to get into detention when she has a job, and Riley accuses her of trying to become her, that she’s turning into Riley. 

No one seems to realize that she still is Maya. She’s still the same, just toned down, more mature.

Just as Riley kisses a boy for more than a few seconds, Maya has sex for the first time at fifteen and the morning after she listens to Riley ramble about how her and Lucas made out for the first time and it felt nice but weird and now she’s worried he might want sex, which she can’t even say, just makes a flustered noise in replacement for the word before moving on. 

It’s as Riley continues to talk that she realizes there no longer RileyandMaya. She’s mentioning things that Maya didn’t even know about and she huffs when Maya mentions it and says that if she quit her job then she would. That’s when Maya realizes that her and Riley aren’t best friends anymore, sisters, family, or even friends. And it hurts less than she thought it would. 

Maya has been seventeen for nearly three months when she sees the Matthews outside of school for the first time since she realized that she and Riley weren’t friends.

She’s waiting for Nina in this cute little coffee shop that’s right in between NYU and where she works. She messes with her phone, bringing up her texts to make sure she got the right time, when the door opens and in comes a group of people. 

She waits a few seconds and only after hearing them marvel over the design and not the menu, she goes up to get a refill. “Thanks.” She murmurs, putting two dollars in the tip jar, managing not to wince for the first time at spending extra money. 

“Holy shit, Maya?” A familiar voice asks, that makes her spin around, just as she receives her refill.  
Her lips form the shape of an ‘o’, her eyebrows nearly touching her hair line as she takes in the sight of Cory, Topanga, Auggie, Riley, and Josh. She can tell everyone is just as surprised as her, but it’s easy to tell who said her name. Her lips smooth out into a smile, “hey, boing.”   
He takes a step forward, smiling at the nickname. “I’ll say it again, wow. You grew up gorgeous.”   
“Likewise.” She waves her hand up and down at him, making him flush slightly and the sight makes her feel a little warm. The near two years she hadn’t seen him, had done him wonders. He looked more confident, more sure of himself. 

He smiles, taking another step towards her and she does the same. “So, what are you doing here?”   
“Waiting on a friend, you?”   
He laughs, “scoping out the competition. Apparently when coffee is eighty percent of your diet and you're a college student, your opinion matters most.” He rolls his eyes, which makes her laugh.   
“When in reality it matters the least, because you’ll drink it no matter how awful and enjoy it because it’s getting you through the day.”   
“Yeah.” His smile widens for a second, and he goes to say something when the door opens again. 

“Maya! I’m sorry, I’m late. Like seriously sorry.”   
It takes her a few seconds, but she tears her eyes away from Josh, ignoring the rest of the Matthews to focus on Nina. “It’s fine. Besides I found a new coffee shop.” Her eyes drift back to Josh for a second.  
Nina laughs, before handing her the bag in her hands. “These are from Smiths, he’s the one who made me late. As long as you show up everyday and get the paperwork complete before next Friday. You’ve got it.”   
“Really?”   
Nina nods, smiling at the younger girl. “Yep, now let me get a coffee and then we can get this paperwork done before you’ve got to go.”   
“Awesome.” 

Nina drops her own bag on the table that Maya’s is at before moving around her to order a coffee. Which has Maya’s attention going back to Josh and she’s surprised to see that he’s looking back at her, a soft look on his face. 

“You're talking about Professor Smiths, right?”   
She nods, “yeah.”   
He nods back, “congrats, Maya.”   
She smiles, not surprised that he knows what’s going on. “Thank you, Josh.” 

“Uh, what’s going on?” Topanga asks, managing to speak for the first time since Josh had spotted Maya.   
Maya hesitates, but before she can say anything, Nina has an arm around her shoulders. “Maya here got asked to run Professor Smith’s art class for kids. He hands it off every year to a college student, but Maya impressed him enough that he bypassed us all to give it to her.”   
“Is that true?” Cory asks.   
She nods, trying to ignore how flushed she is.   
“That’s amazing, Maya. Congratulations.”   
She nods in thanks, throat feeling a little tight. 

She wants to thank Auggie for breaking the slight tension in the room as he demands that they get something since he has to see Ava. They shuffle past her and Nina, but Josh remains and when they stare at each other for a minute, Nina moves to sit down. 

“I haven’t seen you in awhile.” His voice is quiet.   
She nods, ‘Yeah, about two years.”   
“I want to catch up, but obviously we’re both a little busy.” They both laugh. “Could I get your number? We could meet up, talk.”   
Her lips twist into a smile, “wow, boing, that’s moving a little fast don’t you think? I mean, after all you are three years old then me.”   
Josh rolls his eyes, a laugh escaping him. ‘Shut up.”   
“Yeah, you can have my number.” She pauses, glancing over at where his family is. “Just don’t give it to anyone, okay?”   
He looks at her for a second, before nodding. “Of course.” 

As she hands him back his phone and he turns to go join his family, he pauses. “Oh, long game?”   
She laughs, a little breathless at the fact that he remembered, but nods. “Long game.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, do we like it so far?


End file.
